Search team member Eric Hermann pulled in a piece of Flight 261's fuselage after the Alaska Airlines plane crashed on Jan. 31. No one survived. Los Angeles Times photo by Bryan Chan via Associated Press

Washington -- Calm to the end, the pilots of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 tried desperately to wrest the plane out of an inverted dive moments before it plunged into the Pacific Ocean, according to a transcript released yesterday.

One second before the plane hit the water off the Southern California coast Jan. 31 at three times the force of gravity, killing all 88 people aboard, Thompson said his last words to Tansky, 57, of Alameda:

"Ah, here we go."

The transcript of the cockpit voice recorder was among reams of information released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board as it opened a four-day hearing into the crash. The safety board will rule on a probable cause of the crash next year.

Experts will testify this week about the possible failure of the jackscrew, a key part of the tail stabilizer, and whether a certain type of grease used by Alaska to lubricate the part played a role in the crash. The twin-jet MD-80,

which had departed from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, crashed 10 minutes after the crew thought it had regained control of a jammed horizontal stabilizer.

"We are the national archives of what not to do," safety board chairman Jim Hall told The Chronicle. "This is an extremely important investigation for all of us."

In a statement yesterday, an Alaska official said the two pilots "displayed the utmost professionalism."

"Tragically, they were dealing with something no MD-80 pilot had ever experienced: a catastrophic failure of the stabilizer jackscrew," said Kevin Finan, Alaska's vice president of flight operations.

The transcript of the cockpit voice recorder details conversations between the pilots, an Alaska dispatcher and mechanics on the ground for the last 32 minutes of the flight. No sound recordings were released.

An Alaska dispatcher in Seattle initially suggested to the crew that they would encounter delays returning to the air if they diverted as requested to Los Angeles for an emergency landing, according to the transcript. The dispatcher relented when Thompson told him they had a serious problem.

Thompson, 53, of Redlands told Tansky such pressure by the dispatcher "just drives me nuts," according to the transcript.

The captain then radioed Alaska mechanics in Los Angeles, asking whether there were any "hidden circuit breakers" that would solve the stabilizer problem. The mechanics said they would check.

At 4:09 p.m, the cockpit voice recorder caught the sound of two thumps, indicating the stabilizer was moving. The plane plunged 7,000 feet in about a minute.

The captain uttered two mild profanities and then pleaded to Tansky, "Help me back, help me back," referring to pulling back on the yoke. The plane then leveled off. "My adrenaline's going," the captain said, relieved. "It was really tough there for a while."

"Whatever we did is no good," Tansky told Thompson. "Yeah, we're in much worse shape now," the captain replied.

Thompson took a moment to reassure the passengers that the crew was trying to solve a "flight control problem" and would try to land in Los Angeles. After the crew heard a "big bang" from the back of the plane, Thompson told a flight attendant, "I need you, everybody strapped in, dear."

The plane then began its last plunge at 4:19 p.m. "Mayday," Tansky said.

Many relatives of crash victims attended the hearing yesterday. Most wore pins with photos of those who were killed.

"I just felt like all the technicians here needed to be reminded that there are human beings involved," said Earlene Shaw, 65, of Olympia, Wash., whose husband, Don Shaw, 63, died on Flight 261.

Shaw said she couldn't finish reading the transcript of the flight's last moments because "it was a little tough."